Forever Feels Like Home
by Ginkage
Summary: The Black Lion held Shiro's consciousness within itself for what seemed an eternity. When the Paladins make their last effort to save the Earth and are flung back to Earth, their lions take it on themselves to repeat that effort. No one ever tells you that forever feels like home... sitting all alone inside your head... (Contains all Paladins and Lions as main characters.)
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

"It's been an honor to fly with you all. Now, everyone, give it everything you've got!"

Five pairs of hands gripped five sets of controls, pouring body and soul into getting the nearly-critical alien machine out of the atmosphere. Five sets of overclocked engines faded and cut out as they pushed the still frame ahead of them into space just in time. Then…

Everything went first gold, then white.

Blinding white.

It was the last thing that their eyes registered before the shockwave hit them. Before it hit the weary Paladins and sent the lions careening towards Earth with their now-unconscious and battered cargo. The plumes of color, the individual colored quintessence of each, lit up the sky in swirls as each came to rest. Then all was still save for the plumes rising into the air at each impact site.


	2. Chapter 2: Awakening: Keith

Dark violet eyes snapped open with a start, breath hitched in his throat, disoriented at first when his hands did not immediately encounter the arms of his seat in the Black lion. As awareness re-centered and he blinked the white afterimage out of his vision, he realized where he was and his heart sank.

All around him was darkness. A celestial darkness that was strewn with light. Stars and nebulae and far off galaxies spun on a plateau that seemed to go on forever. Keith had been here before, had found Shiro here, had looked on in disbelief when Black's former pilot had stated matter-of-factly that he had died in the battle with Zarkon. It was comforting… yet distressing at the same time.

_'Am I…?'_ his thoughts whirled around the unspoken question as he raised a hand to his head and caught the faint purple glow that rimmed it… and his whole body. He still wore his armor, except for the helmet, which was of some reassurance to him, but still the question lingered.

This time there was no gentle, yet firm voice that he recognized to greet him. The stars slid by in silence, twinkling and circling as if time itself was of no matter.

Keith turned slowly in place, casting his gaze over the seemingly endless path of stars around him and sighed.

It could have been minutes or it could have been hours that passed as he stood there, he couldn't really tell. He was actually beginning to convince himself that he was indeed following in Shiro's footsteps when a second purple glow appeared just on the edge of his peripheral vision. He slowly turned towards it and found the air still in his throat for the second time.

A lion. There was a lion coming towards him. Sleek, black, richly maned with golden eyes and its whole being rimmed in purple. It's tail swayed languidly behind it as it paced towards him. As it neared, the rumbling purr that was often in the back of his head as he piloted grew louder, more insistent. Keith watched, partly in awe, partly in relief, as it came to a rest close enough for him to reach out and touch the inky darkness of its fur.

_'Here you are, Paladin.'_ The rumbling resolved into words in Keith's head as the lion pressed it's own against his head, _'You are safe. All is well. The danger has passed. We succeeded.'_

"Then why am I here and not waking up in medical?" The words tumbled out of his mouth aloud, tinged with rising doubt, the still unvoiced thought of his condition causing his heart to thump deep in his chest "Why aren't the others here?"

_'This is your space within me. This is for you alone so that your consciousness may rest while your body is cared for.'_ Black rumbled to him, dropping its head to pad around him, brushing its head against Keith's hip reassuringly. '_Be assured, the others are just as safe. They may take more convincing to accept this… but it will come. All live, all will heal.'_

Alive. They were all alive. Lance. Hunk. Pidge. Allura. Himself. The relief flooded through him in a wave and unconsciously brought him to his knees. Black rumbled again and pressed its head into Keith's shoulder, presenting the thick ruff of its mane to his Paladin and curling around the young man protectively. Keith's gloved hands curled into fists in the soft fur as he let out a shuddering breath and rested his full weight on the lion's side.

Black purred around the warmth of its Paladin and watched as a few colored comets streaked through the expanse around them.

_'Rest, Paladin. Rest and find yourself. Then we will go find the others.'_


	3. Chapter 3: Awakening: Lance

The Red lion's paladin woke slowly, gingerly, rubbing at eyes still blinded by gold-tinged white. He stumbled for a moment, taking a half-step forward as if his body expected to be coming out of one of the Castle's cryo-pods. Lance paused as the familiar sound of metal under his boot failed to materialize and blinked rapidly until his vision cleared. Looking down, he instinctively raised that same boot up to his knee as the red-tinged star-field below him shifted and circled. Looking up, he saw the same patterns reflected above him and his mouth dropped open.

"What the _quiznak_?" blurted Lance into the resounding silence around him, turning this way and that in the soft red glow with eyes wide. "Where the hell am I? Keith? Hunk? Pidge? Allura? ANYONE?" he shouted, his pitch rising in intensity as he scanned about for the other Paladins. Only the echo of his voice greeted him and he raised a hand to scrape his fingers through his hair.

The glow was near his face. Really near his face. Oh, wait… that was his hand. The glove and blue-on-white armor were edged in a soft red glow that didn't seem to vanish when he wiggled his arm this way and that. Looking over himself quickly it became pretty obvious that this was not an isolated thing. Lance frowned and resumed scratching at his head for a moment before he started walking.

_'We got that thing out of the atmosphere. It exploded. Did we….?'_ The question hung in his mind like a lead weight, seeming to weigh his shoulders down as well with some measure of dread… tinged with a measure of acceptance. He should've expected it, that thing was critical and Pidge said it would wipe out half the planet. It probably wiped them out, too… but it was the right thing to do.

Lance sighed as he walked, the landscape not really changing much save for the overshoot of a comet here and there in bright, oddly familiar colors. He would feel better if he could find one of the others. If this was the afterlife then they should all be here.

_'They are not, but I am, cub.' _The thought purred its way into his mind, flavored with a familiar, almost sarcastic note that spun him on his heel. _'Will you forever doubt that I will come for you?'_

Lance's blue eyes widened and he yelped, jumping about two feet in the air at the sight of the red-rimmed lion that had practically snuck up on him. He could swear it was smirking at him as its tail twitched slowly back and forth.

_'Oh, calm down. You know who and what I am. Relax. You are safe here. All is well. The danger has passed and we succeeded.' _The sleek head of the Red Lion pushed forward and butted him gently, playfully almost, and purred with what seemed to him like a sense of pride. Lance tentatively reached down to touch Red's head, inwardly marveling at how the fur was soft and contrasted with the brighter red glow that they both shared.

"Where are we? What is this? What do you mean the others aren't here?" The questions spilled out of him one after the other even as he felt the moisture gather at the corners of his eyes. They were safe. Earth was safe. His sister and all the other people on the Atlas were safe. His knees trembled for a moment and, without glancing up, Red pressed herself to his side as if propping him up.

_'You are within me, your consciousness at least. I am keeping that which is essentially -you- safe so you can rest mentally while others tend to your physical form. The others are kept safe by their own lions in much the same way.'_ came the rumbling response, tinged with only the faintest annoyance as if the lion had been prepared for this. Compared to all the other times its had stubbornly waited for its Paladin to really -need- it before intervening… there seemed to be no point to withholding this information or being recalcitrant. _'There is no real time here, so there is no pressure to be or do. Just rest.'_

_'Safe.'_ Lance thought to himself, fingers curling in the fur behind his lion's ears gently and then releasing it again. His mind spun with the concept that he was presently inside his lion while his battered body was somewhere out on Earth without him. Then it dawned on him. He remembered when they had all tried to bond in Voltron while on Olkarion and they ended up in that weird inner-space thing. When Shiro tried to reach out and he…

His knees trembled again. It seemed like only yesterday that they'd pulled the Black Paladin out of the consciousness of his lion and into the body of the clone Keith had come back with. He hadn't really dealt fully with feeling like a failure for not picking up that things hadn't been right with his leader at the time.

_'Come now, none of that. You didn't know, it was complicated, even Black admits that it wasn't something expected.'_ Red rumbled against him and twined its glowing form around his legs, pulling gently until it managed to coax Lance to the star-spattered ground. _'Rest. Let it go. It's over.'_ The purr intensified, surrounding the suddenly-weary Paladin in comfort and security until he rested his head on the dark red beneath him and shed his tears into tightly-fisted fur.

_'That's it. Get it all out. When you feel better, we'll see if the others are ready.'_


	4. Chapter 4: Awakening: Allura

The air was still and warm, breezeless but comfortable. It occurred to her about the same time she realized her helmet wasn't on. Hadn't they just been just outside the atmosphere of this planet, this Earth? That wasn't safe. She could hear the gentle chastisement of Coran in her head now.

Allura's eyes fluttered open, mind registering that she was laying on her side as she worked to clear afterimages from her sight. The golden white lingered for a few breaths, hazing everything with a slight film that eventually faded like mist.

Blue the color of twilight surrounded her, that special shade when the sun has barely left the sky and stars begin to take over. An asteroid belt was faintly visible stretching across the median of the sky. None of the constellations were familiar to her, but she had a nameless feeling that it wasn't important. A series of comets streaked the sky, one after another, from horizon to horizon.

Pushing herself up to a sitting position, Allura gazed around at the azure celestial expanse and simply listened to herself breathe for a moment. One hand stole it's way up to her chest for a moment, feeling her heart beneath her armor in its standard Altean rhythm. A quick turn of her head sent a lock of her hair dancing across her newly-cleared vision and she caught the soft streak of blue that followed its movement. She didn't need to glance down to gather that the blue outlined her as she sat on this plain.

"Paladins? Is anyone there?" she called softly, "Keith? Lance? Pidge? Hunk?" The stillness gave up no answer and she frowned slightly. She'd even accept Coran's almost fatherly chastisement for getting separated from the others at this moment. She'd finally gotten used to it not being just herself and the older Altean and the lack of any other noticeable presence was a little unsettling.

Looking at the glow that encased her and exhaling softly, Allura settled herself with legs crossed and thought for a moment. Perhaps calling some of her still-new alchemist knowledge would give her some answers here. She closed her eyes and let her focus go inward, mentally preparing herself for whatever knowledge Oriande could assist her with…

The cold damp nose on the back of her neck was most unexpected indeed. The shock of it shattered her concentration and the faint teal glow between her hands fizzled into a poof of sparks and a perfectly inelegant squeak escaped her lips. Then came the rumbled purr in a soft, familiar tone._ 'No'._

She turned as much as she could in her seated position, earrings bouncing against her neck until she came face to face with a pair of glowing golden eyes in a blue-furred face. As if to make up for the indignancy of its greeting, Blue companionably head-butted the Princess, rubbing it's glowing form against her cheek. _'That is not needed. You are safe. We succeeded. All are well.'_

Blinking rapidly, it entered into Allura's mind for a moment that Lance's prankish nature must have rubbed off on Blue at some point for the lion to startle her like that. "Where is… this? It seems familiar and yet not… and I can't see or hear the other Paladins. Are we…?" The butterflies in her stomach seemed to make an ache that she hoped the lion would assuage.

_'Alive, pretty one. Alive and well are all. I keep your mindself safe while your body heals. The others are the same. And before you pester me with the question, no, you are not trapped here.'_ Blue rumbled with an amused-sounding note as it padded around to her front and reclined with its belly against her leg. _'There will be no need for your skills as with Black's second paladin._'

Allura frowned again and let her hands fall in her lap, eyeing the lion with some measure of doubt despite its familiarity. Of course there were no notes from her father about any of this… space within the lions. Or perhaps things had never gotten this dire with Alfor and his comrades that they had ever needed it.

"If I'm not trapped here… then what must I do to be released from it? It's… not entirely unpleasant, but there are so many things I must do. The other Paladins, finding the Alteans that Romelle came from, making sure the people of this young planet are prepa-" she cut off abruptly as a glowing blue paw landed with a soft *paff* on her lips. Blue stared at her with open amusement, its tail flicking excitedly at the tip before it let the paw drop to rest atop Allura's hands in her lap.

_'You rest. Stop thinking. Stop Princessing. Stop leading. Just. Rest.' _came the purr, half-suggestion, half-commanding, from her lion. _'Time is meaningless here. It exists differently than your physical body. When both are ready and healed, you will awaken, but not before. Fight it not, it will do you good.'_

Shaking her head slowly, Allura sighed and gave a weak smile and patted the paw. "If only it was so easy. I am guilty of so much. I let so much happen and I was led so astray by what I thought were good intentions. I have so much to make right…" Her heart twinged, recalling so freshly how deeply Lotor's manipulations wounded her, her doubts about his sincerity when their lips met coloring everything in muddy hues.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she failed to notice the paw withdraw from her lap and Blue rising. With a soft growl in her head of 'Stop that.' she was knocked onto her back by a firm head-butt from the lion who promptly proceeded to lay its surprisingly nonexistent weight on top of her. While the lion wasn't heavy, she still found she couldn't precisely move either. Covered head to toe in blue fur, gazing up into golden eyes, Allura felt very much like a chastised child and her expression wilted.

_'It was not your fault. Did my previous Paladin not tell you that?'_ Blue stared down into the light turquoise of its Paladin's eyes unflinchingly and nosed her cheek. _'He doesn't blame you. Stop blaming yourself and stop trying to hold up half the universe with your bare hands. Your other Paladins respect and support you, and so do I.'_

Allura swallowed hard as the lion radiated warmth, love, and support and her mind recalled countless moments in their time that the other Paladins had done the same. Freshest was the pep talk from Lance as they tried to revive the Castle. Wrapping her arms around the lion atop her, she nosed into its sleek fur and closed her eyes. Silent tears were soaked into the deep blue and a glowing pink tongue swiped the rest away.

_'That's good. Soon we'll go find the others. They should be ready soon.'_


	5. Chapter 5: Awakening: Hunk

The stillness around him was almost deafening after the explosion. There was no chatter of voices from the other Paladins to reassure Hunk that they'd all made it. Dark brown eyes closed tightly against the bright white that seemed to filter through his lids and the Yellow Paladin recalled their individual timbres to bring him back to center.

_Keith._ Firm, to the point, strident at times but growing with his role as leader when he directed them in battle. A flashback to their conversation in the garrison and how he admitted being impressed with Hunk warmed him.

_Lance. _The joking sharpshooter firing off a sarcastic retort at Keith or brazenly flirting with the newest female of a species to cross his path. He chuckled mentally at imagining the gleaming-toothed grin that frequently graced his friend's face.

_Pidge. _The girl's voice rattled around in his head, telling him not to touch her stuff as well as rambling on about this or that tech point that they'd debated a thousand times before. Her defiance and refusal to give up on finding her brother and father gave him courage.

_Allura._ Her soft, lilting voice filled in the gaps in his picture of the team, recalling the gentleness with which she explained the lions and how their individual traits lined up. Her firm voice as a diplomat belied an otherwise young woman who was finding her place in the universe after 10,000 years asleep.

His mind drifted to recall Shiro's voice, strong in leadership, compassionate, but troubled by all he'd seen and experienced since Kerberos. Coran's witty banter took over, fatherly notes tinging memory with laughter and respect for the older Altean.

There were of course many other voices, newer and lighter in his consciousness, but they remained at a distance. Then the more fondly coveted voices gave way to remembered shouts of warning or cries of pain. Closed eyes screwed even more tightly shut, breath hitching in his throat as his heart ached.

_'We're gone…'_ he thought sadly, _'We have to be…'_

A rough surface swiped gently across his right cheek. Warm breath ghosted across his nose and the swipe was repeated on the left.

_'No! Wake up!'_ came the purred voice in his head as something tickled his forehead around his headband. Blinking rapidly, Hunk's eyes eased open just as it dawned on him that he was laying on his back. The white fog in his vision cleared and a pair of glowing golden eyes met his own brown. Warm yellow fur brushed his forehead again as the Yellow lion looked down at him.

_'I'm here, you are safe. All succeeded, all live. Relax, my worrisome paladin.'_ The rumbling echoed in his head, driving back the harsher cries as if waving a torch at the darkness. A cool nose lowered to rest on Hunk's forehead and the boy found his large, yellow-rimmed hands coming to fist in the soft fur at its neck.

"How?" He murmured, catching a glimpse of a yellow-gold sky, reminiscent of dawn and brushed with stars. A band of desert and red colored rock, layered in stripes by an unseen gravity, stretched across the sky above them like Saturn's rings.

"We should be dead. That thing exploded right in front of us. Our chances of not being in the blast radius were…" His voice started out confident, certain that fate had dealt its hand, but trailed off into an unvoiced doubt. One hand fell to his armored chest limply. 'What happened after that?' The thought rippled in his consciousness as he found himself unable to recall anything after the bright flash. Hunk's mind reeled with the possibilities.

Warmth stretched along his right side as Yellow reclined against him. Another touch of nose to cheek and a deeper rumble seemed aimed to still his thoughts before panic could take over. Hunk's head turned, his eyes nearly boring into the lion's with worry etched in his expression as familiar as his own armor. The question hung in the air, practically begging to be answered.

_'Yet you live. Those who care for you are retrieving your physical form from where we landed. They will see to your care.' _The rumbling purr summoned forth an image in his mind, one of his parents finding his crashed lion near the work camp they'd been imprisoned in. _'I keep your inner self safe here. You can rest here until you feel ready to wake completely. There is no rush… time is of no concern….'_

Hunk felt as though he should cry at the image in his mind, but all he felt was a warm relief that made his limbs languid. His family, both blood and those adopted through Voltron, were safe. That was all that mattered right now.

"Yeah… rest sounds good right now. Didn't realize how tired I was…" he breathed out into the space between him and Yellow. A soft smile crept across his face before he rolled on his side and nestled into the glowing golden fur.

_'That's my boy.'_ purred Yellow in his mind, laying its head down on its paws against the boy's large shoulders. _'Rest and we'll go find the others.'_

As Hunk's eyes closed, the colorful handful of comets streaked across the lion's sky above them, earning a flick of golden eyes.

_'Soon.'_


	6. Chapter 6: Awakening: Pidge

It felt like the ground rose and fell beneath her… or at least beneath her head. Otherwise everything around her was still and comfortably warm. Something brushed against her side between armor pieces, slipping over the undersuit softly before disappearing. Her brown eyes remained lightly covered by faintly fluttering lids as awareness filtered in around her. A faint white fog cleared as she cracked one eye open to peer over the rim of her glasses.

_'Wait… I wasn't wearing those earlier. What's going on here?'_ Pidge thought fuzzily, dimly aware that the 'ground' continued to rise and fall beneath her head. This ground was awfully soft and… glowing? One hand lifted into her field of vision which registered the green glow around it before it came to rest on the fur next to her nose. _'Fur? This doesn't add up… what?'_

_'I wondered when you'd wake up, little one.'_ The ground rumbled companionably against her, green fur tickling at her nose until she levered herself up slightly. Glowing golden eyes, leonine eyes, gazed back at her fondly. The Green lion was curled almost possessively around its Paladin, cushioning her rest. _'Don't overthink things. You're safe, all is well. There was success all around.'_

Memory of the alien creature and battle came back to her in a rush, the final explosion replaying in her mind and causing her to flinch unconsciously. A green tail twitched into her lap and Green rumbled reassuringly.

"Green? Where? Where are we? Where is this? Where are the others?" Pidge scanned around her furry resting place, giving the green starfield around her a dubious survey and pushing the glasses up her nose out of habit. "This… isn't Earth. That's obvious. What is going on?"

_'Telling you not to overthink is like telling the sun not to shine, isn't it?'_Green purred in amusement and Pidge could swear she got a raised eyebrow out of her lion as it leaned in to nose at her knee. _'Black says that you'd understand this best as something similar to where his Paladin was stuck for a while. Before Blue's paladin drew him out and gave him freedom. It's a safe place to rest and heal your mind while your body is cared for.'_

_'Shiro? They mean Shiro.' _Pidge swallowed hard, the fingers of one hand curling tightly into the fur beneath her as if it would steady her. He'd been in there for weeks. He nearly didn't survive coming out. Would she? Would the others? What about her parents? What about Matt? What…

It felt like the bottom was dropping out of her little world, analytical mind running up against a problem that it couldn't see a solution to because how in the world do you analyze your lion's internal safe space and expect an answer? She wasn't even aware that she was holding her breath until Green shifted underneath her enough to box her gently with a paw. The impact, uncontested, sent her sprawling back onto its side with her eyes wide.

_'Stop that. Stop thinking you silly creature. You're my paladin, do you think I'd do anything less than keep you safe? You're not a prisoner here. When you've rested enough and you feel ready to fully wake, you will do so. Right now your body needs to heal first.'_ The green-furred paw laid against her cheek, the pads of its toes like warm, butter-soft leather against her skin._'You are all a puzzle sometimes, but you have all the time you want to figure out where your pieces are and put them back together.'_

Inhaling sharply, Pidge flooded her lungs with a breath and shuddered it out again into the fur beyond her nose. Her lion was cradling her, nothing was attacking her, it was all so peaceful here. She glanced up at the sky again and caught the quintet of colored comets making their path across a nebula. Black, red, blue, yellow, green. They glowed as their tails left a familiar tracework across the darker green patches.

"Is… is that them?" She asked softly, freeing one hand to point up at the colored lights. Green looked away from her and up at the comets, rumbling an assent and swiping a glowing pink tongue across its muzzle.

_'It is. And you. The connection remains between you all. When you feel rested enough we can go find them together.' _The lion watched the comets as they headed for the horizon and gave a purred sigh that trailed off almost sadly. Pidge lifted her head slightly to regard Green with a quizzical expression and was rewarded with a tilt of an ear.

_'I wish the other Paladin could have this chance. He was here with Black once, but it was not of either's choosing. It would do him good to rest with you all.'_ Golden eyes swiveled back to its Paladin, tail twitching in the small girl's lap. _'I wonder….' _


	7. Chapter 7: Awakening: Shiro

Dark slate-colored eyes watched the light stream in between the blinds of the hospital windows and pass in bands across the blankets in front of him. As time passed, one crept up to cast soft sunlight across his right hand, contrasting with the white and teal of the prosthetic as he stretched his fingers slowly. The room was quiet, still, peaceful. The same could not be said of his thoughts as he processed the last several days, jaw working wordlessly as he played with the sunbeam.

After the Paladins had crashed back to Earth, he had put aside the pain of his own injuries until all of them were recovered. It felt like he had to get eyes on each one, had to see that each one was safe before he could even take a breath. Never-mind that he and Coran were the only ones that knew how to get into the Lions to get their pilots out.

Being closest to the Garrison, they found Keith first in the impact crater from the Black lion. Shiro was right there, his hands the first to carefully pull the helmet from the head of the young man who called him 'brother'. His fingers checked for a pulse, tried not to shake with relief when one was found. He stood aside as the medical crew gently lifted the unconscious and battered body free of the pilot's chair, Coran watching hawk-like to ensure proper treatment, and walked beside the gurney as they left the still and quiet Lion. Then it was time to find the others.

Lance they found second, his lion having impacted on the far side of Platte City amidst the ruined buildings there. A crowd of survivors had already formed something of a ring around the smoking crater when Shiro and Coran arrived with a team. It was a quietly respectful ring as everyone by now knew what the Red lion's Paladin and his comrades had done to save them. As they got into the lion to find Lance, his sister showed up to join them, kneeling by Shiro as they freed the blue-armored boy. It was Veronica who verified her brother breathed in a voice that only trembled a little and directed his extraction. Shiro couldn't help but smile as he watched her work and internally commended her level of calm.

Hunk's Lion was the next easiest to locate, having fallen not far from the Galra work camp his parents had been held in. He wasn't the first there, but in hindsight Shiro thought that getting to help the couple free their injured son seemed justified. He knew how worried the Samoan boy had been for them and he saw similar worry etched on their features as they waited by the Yellow lion's head while Coran gained access. He let them be the first to be at their son's side, confirm he breathed, cry tears of relief and follow him out to be taken to the hospital. They would be there when Hunk woke, he knew it.

For a Paladin who had professed a general dislike of nature before their time on Olkarion, it was fitting that Pidge landed in a forest. Surrounded in a ring of flattened trees and scorched brush, the Green Paladin's landing site was almost bucolic. It made it easier for Shiro to see her small form as just sleeping in the pilot's chair as he checked her over. The brush had been too thick and hilly to get more than one or two off-road vehicles in, let alone a medical vehicle, so he gingerly carried the youngest Paladin out of her lion. She weighed so little in comparison to the others, her helmet-less head of soft brown hair pillowed against his chest and her hands rested in her lap. Her breaths barely stirred the fabric of his uniform but at least she was breathing.

Allura was the hardest to retrieve, having fallen into one of the deep lakes miles from the Garrison. Another remnant from the last world war, deep craters had filled with rainwater and the sluice from snow-melt in the mountains not far off. Her lion sank deeply to the bottom and had to be raised before the Altean princess could be freed from inside it. Shiro watched with deceptive calm as the few heavy-lifting craft to survive the Galra attack hauled on the cables that had been wound around the Blue lion until it dangled, dripping, in the air over the lake. Once they deposited it on the ground, as gently as was ultimately possible with such craft, he and Coran rushed to get to the last of their space-faring family. The elder Altean brushed Allura's hair out of her bruised face with fatherly care, checked her over, and swiped briefly at his eyes. She would survive and it completed their circle of injured.

A frown etched into his features and his hand stilled in the sunbeam, his left coming up to rub at the pinched feeling between his eyes above his scar. He had given in to the urging of others to finally rest after seeing the Paladins recovered and treated. It worried him a bit that none of them had woken in the days it took to see all freed and brought to the Garrison hospital. Sam had taken one look at him sitting at Keith's bedside, proclaimed he looked like fresh hell and all but ordered him to a room.

Colleen and Matt had walked with him so he could get checked over and the elder of the Holt siblings had squeezed his shoulder when the med tech pronounced that he needed to take the example of the team and get his butt in a bed. His expression must have said volumes because Matt chuckled and said something about 'being the hardest head in Voltron' before they packed him off to his room.

At some point, Hunk's parents stopped by to check on him. The Yellow Paladin still seemed to sleep, but he was stable and they needed the change of scenery. They sat with him, asked guarded questions about their boy, and smiled gently as Shiro told them a tale or two of their escapades. He couldn't help but chuckle giving them the image of Hunk, armored and cannon in hand, firing rapidly with a finger-pointing Coran perched on his shoulders. Hunk's father seemed to particularly enjoy that one, his laughter filling the room and brightening it for a while. Eventually they left, reminding him that he needed his rest, and he gave in to the call of sleep for a time.

Veronica came by in one of his wakeful periods, both to update him on Lance and the others and to talk about repairs to the Atlas and other more mundane Garrison business. Shiro knew it was as much to distract him from the others as anything else, but he appreciated her attempt to engage him. He joked that they'd probably want to make a speech at some point, honor the fallen, honor the strength that kept them all together. Veronica smiled in a fox-like way that Shiro realized was nearly identical to Lance's, patted his knee over the blankets, and rose to head back out. She paused at the door and gave him that same smile and tapped her nose, leaving him with an enigmatic statement.

"Be careful what you wish for, Captain."

It was hours later when he found himself staring at the sunbeam on his hand, a small knot in his stomach, a tugging feeling that refused to go away. Whether it was his imagination… or a fond wish… a familiar male voice threaded through his still-wandering thoughts. They conjured an image of soft brown hands, lighter brown hair, and eventually a pair of brown eyes behind glasses that made his heart twist in sadness.

_'Adam…'_ he thought, closing his eyes and laying his head back against the pillow. The image brightened behind his eyes, resolving into the smiling face of his lost love. He recalled their last words to each other and the breath shuddered out of him all at once, unaware that he'd been holding it. The image before him shook its head and reached hands out to touch either side of his face softly. He swore he could actually feel it as his surroundings seemed to melt away. A pair of soft lips pressed to his forehead lovingly, a thumb rubbed across his cheekbones, and the deeply-missed voice reverberated in his head as fingers touched his chest above his heart.

_'Sleep, Shiro. I'll be right here.'_

For the first time in days since they returned to Earth, Shiro drifted off and fell deeply asleep. Hours later Matt stopped by to check on him again, noted a single tear-track on his cheek, and pulled the blankets up to cover him before slipping back out again.


	8. Chapter 8: Convergence: Part 1

It could have been the distance of an eternity or merely the space of a breath. Time really didn't seem to pass here in any way that was truly measurable. The gentle rise and fall of the dark fur beneath his hands, even breaths that he came to match, and the deep purr that brought calm with it. Keith leaned into Black, eyes closed, spilling thoughts, fears, regrets, and hopes into the lion's side as they came to him. The lion listened without reproach rumbling reassurances as seemed needed, nosing at him purposefully if a particular memory came too strongly and caused panic. In between rounds of talking out everything in his head, it felt like he slept, but perhaps that was because nothing disturbed Lion and Paladin here.

_'You have come a long way, Paladin. Yours was a path full of obstacles that taught you much and you learned even more.'_ Black rumbled beneath him, the two having shifted positions at some point so that Keith sprawled on his back with his head on the lion's flank. The golden eyes of his lion regarded him with a pride and love that reminded him of his mother.

_Krolia._ Her face flashed in front of Keith's vision for a moment, the lion's smile echoed in the one she'd given him when they parted in the ruins. The two years they'd spent trying to get through the Quantum Abyss and barely begun to make up for the years they'd been apart. She'd never pressed him too much on anything they'd seen in the time shifts, they each learned a great deal about each other in that time. Yet he'd been alone for such a long time after his father died that, even with Shiro and then his Voltron crew, it was a hard mindset to break. Crew? No… they'd become his family. The family that he felt he no longer had before the Blue lion had spirited them all back to Arus and started this journey.

Looking up at the starfield above him, Keith remembered the nights in the orphanage, the nights in the Garrison, and the nights after the news of the Kerberos mission. The stars here were different than the ones he'd looked up at on Earth, casting his heart out among them for the pilot he'd come to call brother. Those first few weeks after the big rescue had passed so quickly with them all thrown into a world far beyond their understanding and a responsibility they weren't ready for.

They kept each other ready. Sure, he and Lance fought like the rivals he claimed they were, he couldn't always understand Hunk's reticence about, well, everything, and Pidge's passion and intellect were a bit overwhelming at first… but they hadn't abandoned him and he found, over time, that he couldn't bring himself to abandon them. Even when he walked away from Voltron for the Blade of Marmora, he still checked in on them. The time Allura saw him in the crowd as they handed out relief supplies wasn't the only time. He'd seen 'The Voltron Show' and the memory of it made him smile up at the stars again.

"I have a feeling we're not done learning anything yet, Black." he murmured, holding up one hand to frame a nebula and its blue-purple clouds. "We don't know where that thing came from that we fought. We didn't have time."

"We thought we were finally done."

Black's ears laid back slightly as the tiredness crept into his Paladin's voice again, the flesh crinkling around his eyes as it has done several times as they've sat here. The lion flicked his tail sharply, laying the thick length of it across Keith's lap and curling it somewhat like a hug.

_'We are Voltron. While we have seen peace… there was always another challenge waiting.' _came the answering rumble as the ears lifted again, tail tip threatening to tickle Keith's nose as it flicked. _'There will always be some sort of challenge… the universe is bigger than you knew, remember?'_

He knew the lion is right about that. Up until the Kerberos mission, no one on Earth could have fully dreamed just how far the universe expanded beyond the Solar System. The Paladins and Pidge's family had learned that all too well. They'd come home wanting to share that knowledge and it had almost ended them all. Almost.

Keith let out a gusty sigh and sat up from Black's flank, resting his hands in his lap for a moment. He looked over the gloved fingers, flexing them in memory of holding his bayard, holding the blade that linked him to his mother, reaching for and holding onto those he's come to care about. Then he curled them into a fist and turned his eyes to his lion, smiling genuinely for what feels like the first time in eons.

"We'll face them together. We should go find the others." Black flicked its tail out and rumbled in approval as his Paladin gets to his feet. Rising as well, the lion's shape seems to swell and shift, growing from the size of the average lion to one that dwarfs the young man beside it.

_'Good. You are ready for the next step. Get on and I'll take you to the others. Green has an idea…' _The lion reclined briefly to allow the Paladin access to its back, glancing over its shoulder at him. Keith, briefly awestruck by the change, grabbed a fistful of black fur and hauled himself up to a point just behind those large shoulders. He felt the ethereal muscles bunch beneath him and barely had time to heed the rumbled warning to hang on before Black leaped forward across the starfield before them.

It took him a few seconds before he noticed the familiarly colored streaks in the sky that the lion appeared to be chasing, gaining on, as they pound across the expanse. As they neared the comets, the space around them lightened, easing from black into a soft, enveloping white…


	9. Chapter 9: Convergence: Part 2

His eyes hurt. His throat hurt. Yet… the moment he thought about the discomfort, it vanished. The red fur beneath his cheek felt just as dry as it did when he first wept out the balance of his pent-up emotions. The warm purring beneath continued unabated, eventually bringing him back to center.

Lance pushed himself up to a sitting position, releasing tightly fisted sections of Red's ethereal pelt and smoothing them over half-heartedly. The lion twitched its tail and, with an all-over ripple of muscles, resettled the bunched fur back into place. Golden eyes gave him a quietly amused look before the cool nose of the lion pressed lightly against his cheek.

_'Feel a bit better, cub? A bit less pressure behind that dam in your head?'_Red asked its Paladin with a surprising gentleness for an otherwise stubborn lion. Lance almost felt a maternal note to the rumbling in his head. Perhaps he was just projecting his mother on Red since their reunion was still so fresh in his memory.

"Yeah… I think so. It's just.. All been so much. Going full-tilt, balls to the wall, no end in sight sorta thing since we got back." he murmured, running a gloved hand through his hair. "Barely home and it almost all fell apart again. I know, I heard what you said before, I'm not rehashing that part." Red had narrowed its eyes at Lance there for a moment, causing the Paladin to hold up both hands defensively around a faintly annoyed expression.

_'Being defenders of the universe is not an easy task… and you all were much younger than our first Paladins. Less experience with conflict.'_ Red purr-rumbled and slowly raised itself to a seated position, tail still curled around Lance's thighs and hips protectively. _'That's part of why this place is here. Your bodies are an easier thing to heal than your minds by a great deal. This was the easiest way to let you all work through what's happened and have at least some chance of moving forward.'_

_'It doesn't mean that it won't still affect you.'_ the lion looked up at the swirling star-field above them and sighed with a note of resignation. _'We can't take it all off of you… as much as we wish we could. But if everything out there is too much, we can give you this when you need an escape.'_

"Kinda like a vacation… but we don't have to go anywhere. I think I get it. " Lance mused, raising one hand to tap his fingers against his chin. His lower lip stuck out slightly as it often did when he was puzzling something that wanted to otherwise escape him. After a breath or two, he sighed gustily and shrugged, looking sheepishly at his lion. "I think I do… but this magical spiritual mumbo-jumbo was never my strong suit and you know it."

The rumbling purr that echoed through the starfield around them reminded Lance of laughter, but there was no derision in it or the feeling that he'd missed out on something. It was friendly and familiar and put some of his doubts at some level of ease._ 'You tried, my cub. I think that's all anyone can or should ask of you at the best of times.'_

They sat that way for a while, companionable silence flitting between them long enough for a small sun-like star in the distance to dawn, rise slightly, and sink back into the astral horizon. Lance ran his fingers lazily through Red's fur and began to realize that a lot of his worries upon waking had indeed eased. Some were still there, mostly the ones about the state of his fellow Paladins, but the rest seemed softened and not as full of sharp, painful angles and cracks. It brought a small smile to his face as his eyes unfocused on the horizon and he just let himself breathe.

However long it was, eventually Red nosed him gently and lifted one of his hands up. Lance answered by running his fingers along to the lion's ears and rubbing one gently. _'I think it's time we went and found the others. You seem like you're more centered than before, calmer.'_

"Yeah… it's not the beach back home… but it has the same effect." he said softly, mouth quirking to one side as the lion leaned against his hand with a somewhat more enthusiastic purr. "Thanks, Red. I'm glad we bonded enough that you could help me like this. What everyone says about the Red Lion being difficult isn't really tr-ACK! WHAT THE QUIZNAK!"

Lance's well-meant and matter-of-fact voice ended in a screech as Red abruptly stood, seeming to grow several sizes with the movement, and reached down to pick up its Paladin like an errant… kitten. Looking down, Lance had only a split second to realize his feet were nowhere near the ground before Red leapt into movement across the starfield. The celestial view around them warped and streaked as red paws pounded across the expanse, narrowing in on a familiarly colored set of comets.

As the red quickly gave way to a soft white, Lance squeaked out "Mama?" before the light enveloped them.


	10. Chapter 10: Convergence: Part 3

She woke a second time to the soft rise and fall of Blue's fur under her cheek. At some point the lion had shifted to curl up with the Princess so that she rested against its shoulder and neck. The long, glowing tail laid lightly across her legs, the tip twitching ever so faintly. When it sensed her waking, it brushed a cool nose gently across her cheek and rumbled fondly.

_'You've been carrying that all for a long time, haven't you?' _came the voice, devoid of reproach, gently concerned, and feeling like it propped her up all at the same time. Blue swiped its tongue gently across the spot on her cheek it nosed and then just leaned companionably there. _'So many walls you have, my Paladin.'_

"Everyone expects strength, calm, assurance, things that I may not have in me… but I find a way to make sure they see it." Allura spoke softly, reaching up a hand to stroke her lion's cheek absently. To be a Princess, presumably of what little remained of her people between her and Coran, to help pull together an Alliance and be a pillar within it.

To do it all and then become a Paladin and be Chosen of Oriande as well. It wasn't surprising that the house of cards that was her interface with the rest of the universe was on shaky ground. Asleep for 10,000 years and then the weight of so many worlds being thrust upon her without much chance to breathe, let alone put her mind in the place it needed to be.

"I never felt I really had a choice. So I simply -did- and trusted that it would all work out." she leaned into Blue's head and closed her eyes. It was so quiet here, it didn't feel like anything was needed of her. For once it felt like there was no pressure in her mind to keep up all the walls and gates that protected her innermost being from… everything. Just the throaty purr of her lion and the beating of her own heart.

_'There is no shame in leaning on others. No shame in letting them into your pain and sharing it. When it is not purely your burden it carries much less weight.' _Blue's tail twitched across her lap, leaving a faint blue afterimage of the sweep in its wake._ 'You know I am always here, as are the other Paladins. They care so much for you, I think they would fall over each other to shoulder your weight.'_

"They have so much on their shoulders already! They are practically children!" cried Allura, frowning as she dropped her hands to her lap. "They've seen and done things that children should never have to do or see."

_'They could have refused… turned their backs on us and tried to find their way home.'_ There was a note of pain to the lion's rumble, as if the thought has not been far from its mind as well as hers._ 'Yet they did not. They listened. They prepared. They took action. They fought for what they had no real comprehension of and it made them stronger. The rest you all take here will never fully erase the scars of what has taken place, but it is long overdue.'_

Glancing down at her hands, Allura let her breath out softly from behind her teeth, rubbing her fingers against each other fitfully. She remembered how Pidge had nearly walked away from Voltron to find her family, the loss of Shiro that was only barely eclipsed by the joy of retrieving him, and Keith's absence with the Blade of Marmora. Yet, in their own ways, all had come back in the end. They hadn't abandoned each other or her.

They'd grown so much that she found herself hard-pressed to say that they were children anymore. Even for all her time in the cryo-pod, she was still not all that much older than they were, respectively. Shiro was closest to her age as far as anyone could tell, but no one ever really touched on it during their travels. It had never seemed important as the younger Paladins had looked up to her caring authority anyway. She felt she was somewhere between mother and sister to all of them and found that, in her heart, it didn't matter which one. Allura just wanted them all to come home safe, regardless of the mission of the moment.

_'You all came home safe. Yes, you need to heal physically, but no one perished.'_ Blue rumbled, nosing at her cheek again as a tear streaks down it, catching the drop before it can reach her chin. _'They don't blame you. Stop blaming yourself.'_

Burying her face in the lion's cheek for a moment, Allura let a few more tears fall around a shuddering inhale and exhale of breath. As she breathed out, her shoulders relax and she nuzzled the fur against her face. "I'm glad you're here with me, Blue. If you hadn't made yourself a presence here… I'd be in a right state. Thank you. For listening… and helping."

The lion rumbled reassurance but doesn't say anything in response, instead giving the Princess time to center herself. Having gone through two Paladins in such a relatively short time, it can only take its own refuge in patience. Eventually Blue notes that the Princess' breathing calmed and her head raised, gracing her with one of what have seemed rare, peaceful smiles.

_'Do you feel up to a trip now, my Princess? You seem ready to find the rest of your family here. I think it would do you good to see them now.'_ Allura nodded and, after a full-body stretch, rose to her feet. Blue rose as well and, with an equally full-body stretch, grew steadily in size until of a size that its Paladin can easily ride. Nosing the Altean onto her back, the lion purred approval up at her. _'Hang on, dear one. We're going to go very fast here. Look for the comets as we get closer.'_

"Comets? Where? Oh!" Allura barely had a thought to curl her fingers into a hold on her lion's fur before it padded forward a few steps and took off like a rocket. Granted it was a loping rocket, but the starfield passed by so quickly it almost steals her breath. Just as the expanse before them begins to whiten, she caught the aforementioned streaks of color angling towards the point they head for.

"Beautiful…" she murmured just as the white overtakes them…


	11. Chapter 11: Convergence: Part 4

"I almost don't want to leave."

The Yellow lion raised its head and gazed back along its shoulder at its Paladin, who had woken again at some point and was now laying against the yellow-furred back with arms crossed, head resting on them. Hunk's face was calm and even, his breathing gentle, but his eyes were wistful. Yellow tilted its head in regard of the boy and gave a gusty sigh.

_'I understand. This is the most peace any of you have had in phoebs. May be the most peace you have for many more to come.'_ the lion rumbled, gazing evenly at Hunk, no hint of judgement in its eyes or tone. _'I can give you all the time you need for your mind and body to catch up to each other… but eventually you have to go back.'_

"I know." Hunk pressed his lips firmly together and sat up, pausing briefly to give Yellow's back a brief scratching that elicited a pleased purr from the lion. "I'm glad we had this time. I know we bonded out there… but it feels like we had more time for that here. It helps. I'm still terrified of what's out there, but I know you and the others are on my side."

_'You are braver than you give yourself credit for, my Paladin. Black's Paladin was right in what he said to you.'_

"I don't care what Keith says, he can too talk to people." chuckled Hunk, remembering their conversation before they went to find where his parents were being held in the Galra work camp. His parents… their faces flashed in his mind and his heart twinged. He missed them. He wondered if they were okay after all the fighting had stopped. One hand came up to rest over his heart for a moment, eyes far away as he looked off at the spacefield horizon.

_'They found us.'_ rumbled Yellow, the words snapping Hunk out of his daze and making him blink tears back from the corners of his eyes. _'Your parents. They found us. We crashed right outside the work camp they were in. They waited by me until others could arrive to get me open and get you out. They were fine last my eyes saw.'_

Then came the waterworks. Relief at knowing his parents are free and safe seemed to break a dam in Hunk with a snap that's almost audible to his lion. While it's a quiet display, the tears streamed down the Yellow Paladin's face around the smile of utter relief that stretched across his face. There were no words to echo back across their bond other than a soundless thanks for that oh-so-important bit of news.

Yellow let the boy have his time and purr-rumbled, moving to curl around him tightly for as long as it is needed. This is what the lion had waited for it seems, waited for his Paladin to really let go and get it all out. Given the more vocal emotional displays Hunk had shown in the past, the near-soundlessness of his crying is new… aside from the sniffling. That at least isn't new.

Eventually, the tears stopped, the sniffling eased, and Hunk rubbed one gloved hand against his face to scrub it all away. The other reached out and ruffles his lion's ears as he took a few deep breaths.

"Thank you. Thank you for telling me they were safe, too." he murmured to the soft yellow ears, leaning over to rest his forehead against the lion's. "I feel lighter now… like I could move on and handle… whatever comes next."

The glowing pink tongue swiped out to lick Hunk's chin in acknowledgement, the pair sitting like that for a few more breaths before the lion starts to move. Uncurling from its protective stance, it rose and stretched languidly, form shifting and growing larger before him. Nosing Hunk towards its back, Yellow waits for the Paladin to climb up and grab on before starting to move.

_'Time to go catch the others. It's almost time.'_ Yellow rumbled before launching into a dead run towards a handful of familiarly colored streaks in the sky. It took very little time it seemed before they gained on the comets and the world went white around them.

Hunk's last thought before it enveloped them was a question.

_Time for what?_


	12. Chapter 12: Convergence: Part 5

For someone who spent most of her time with a digital screen and a keyboard in front of her, Pidge found that walking about the starfield of her lionspace with Green helped her focus more. The two ambled companionably about the expanse, the Paladin's hand resting against the lion's shoulder gently. It had seemed somewhere between a breath and an eternity since they'd last seen the comets streak over head and Green had made its somewhat enigmatic musing.

Pidge nibbled on her lower lip and glanced up at one of the many nebulae that seemed to ghost across the celestial view. For a brief moment she wondered if the stars were random or corresponded to something out in the real world. There was still so much of the universe that she hadn't seen even with having been wormholed far from the Milky Way and its familiar makeup.

_'Your curiosity is adorable, little one. I am glad to have you as my Paladin.'_came the amused purr from beside her as the lion walked slowly. _'I do not know if this exists outside of my being, but the universe is an amazing thing.'_

"It is… " Pidge blushed at the leading comment from Green and rubbed at the bridge of her nose with her free hand, "It almost seems impossible to have this much in one place, though. I'd prefer to think that it's unique and… well… mine. Yours and mine. Our own little cosmos full of starstuff."

_'It will always be here for you, little bird.' _The switch in how the lion refers to her caused Pidge to blink a few times, having not heard that fond moniker since she was little._ 'There is a gathering place beyond this, though. It is where all five lions meet and is something of a hub, but does not belong to one of us specifically to the best of our knowledge. That's where the others will be when you all are ready.'_

Pidge's eyebrows threatened to climb into her hairline as she listened, eyes widening a fraction as the concept sank in. She was quiet for a bit, listening to the softness of their paired footfalls through lionspace, gazing off vaguely into the distance. Green turned its head slightly to regard her and, if the girl had been watching, she would have seen the emerald muzzle curl up in a small smile.

_'Did I start a puzzle in your head, my girl?'_

"Gathering place. A hub. Somewhere that's part of the Lions… but at the same time it's not." Pidge moved her free hand to curl in front of her mouth, fingers toying with her lower lip with a spark in her eyes that told her lion that there were indeed gears turning in that tousled head. When she stopped, the lion paused as well, angling to better face her. Breaths came and went in silence before the amber-brown eyes of the Green Paladin's gaze locked forward and popped as widely as her face would allow.

"That's it! That'd be perfect!" She practically shouted into the silence, though Green's ears didn't fall back at the volume and instead swiveled forward alertly. "You said that it was a shame that Shiro couldn't come to a place like this. He doesn't have a lion anymore and Black is bonded with Keith so he couldn't pull two people in there, I'd guess. But… that hubspace, it's like a blank slate, a landing pad."

Her eyes flicked to and locked on to the golden ones of Green gazing at her and Pidge's fingers swiftly moved to bury deep into the fur of her lion's muzzle. A bright grin spreads across her face and she presses her forehead to the lion's.

"We could pull him in. Maybe. We've all seen each other on the astral plane before when we tried that one bonding and didn't know he was stuck in Black. I mean, it makes some sense, as much as anything can make sense in this… lionspace and I've got about as much mystical knowledge as a bowl of food goo. Maybe Allura can help us all link up or something and we can pull him in. What do you think?" The words tumble out of her mouth in the rapid-fire all-or-nothing rush that comes when she's fervently excited about an idea. It almost leaves Pidge panting when she's done and she almost wants to hold her breath waiting for a response.

_'Indeed. I gave you quite the puzzle, and you found enough pieces to make a picture. Well done, little bird.'_ Green rumbled with the most profuse pride that washes over Pidge like a warm wave, the pair glowing a little brighter for a moment._ 'I think it's time to go find the others. You need their pieces to get this going. Hop on.'_

Raising her head from Green's, Pidge gasps slightly seeing that the head she had cradled in her fingers has expanded and grown and she looked up at something that her brain wants to register as way more than pony-sized. Purring reassurance and amusement, the lion reclined beside her so its back is more accessible and nosed her playfully until an answering grin spreads across the Paladin's face. She practically launched herself onto the offered back and grips fur in her fingers with very little urging.

"Let's go, Green!"

Green provided an answering roar that echoes across the starfield before it launches into a dead run. No easy lope to start with and Pidge whooped in delight as the stars, nebulae, and other phenomena blur as they gain speed. She glanced just up over her lion's ears to see the comets streak above them again and head for the horizon that is rapidly growing whiter. Her breath caught in her throat when another begins to catch up to them, this one an oddly familiar white tinged with teal. Paladin and Lion barely had time to register the new arrival as the expanse around them went white…


	13. Chapter 13: Reunion: Part 1

White.

There was white everywhere, but it wasn't blinding. It was comforting and had a faint teal tinge to it. In many ways it seemed like the starfields of lionspace… but at the same time there were no stars to see. Nothing that brought familiarity with it.

Then just as soon as it was there, it faded and was replaced by a starfield that oscillated with color. The base color was a black night sky, overlaid with shimmering bands of red, blue, yellow, and green. Violet clouds of nebulae shifted and flowed through the field.

A white star shot across the 'sky', illuminating everything around in its wake before slipping over the horizon. All was silent.

Then came the sound. A soft sort of thunder at first, growing in volume as if it was coming closer.

Then the roars. The laughter of five voices overlaid with the roars of five lions.

The center of the starfield bore mute witness as five comets shot from five directions to meet at its apex. Red, blue, yellow, green, and violet-tinged black came to the same point with a brilliant flash before seeming to rain down to the starfield floor. Each glowing mote resolved itself first into a lion, sized far beyond any size considered natural, one for each color, each with a figure on its back. The lions formed a rough circle and roared again in welcome to each other.

Keith looked up over Black's head and broke into the brightest smile anyone had witnessed as he saw the rest of the team. Sliding down from his lion's back, he raced for the space at the center of the circle, not looking back to see Black slip back down to its previous size and pad after him.

Lance's awestruck expression was traded quickly for a wolf-like howl with eyes squeezed briefly shut, both arms thrust into the air in triumph. Then he curled his arms around Red's neck and swung himself down to run towards the center. Red followed more sedately, shrinking down gradually as well.

Allura looked around the starfield for a moment, breath caught in her throat after the run with Blue. When her eyes caught on the others, she practically leapt off the lion with laughter in her throat as she ran away from Blue's diminishing size.

Hunk was already laughing as Yellow came to a stop underneath him, ruffling the lion's ears fondly as he hopped off. He paused after dismounting the lion to press his forehead to the yellow-furred head as it changed down, then took off to meet the others.

Pidge didn't even wait for her lion to hit the ground, she was already vaulting over Green's head and running flat out towards her team. Green rumbled amusement and gave itself an all-over shake to resize its shape.

The five met in the middle of the circle in what would have, under normal circumstances, been a truly frightening impact. Instead of a crash, though, arms were flung wide to each other and they met in one big hug before tumbling to the ground. Laughter and tears abounded, words failing as they were each reassured that they were all safe. The lions eventually came to recline in a circle around their Paladins, each one laid out so paws touched each others tails, and watched the reunion.

"I am so glad to see you guys. This is unreal…" Keith was the first to find his tongue, half-leaning against Lance on one side while reaching out to ruffle Pidge's hair. It wasn't lost on the team that their leader seemed the most relaxed he ever had, more peace in his face than any of them had seen in each other in what felt like ages.

"Unreal doesn't even start on it, Keith." Lance laughed and gently punched at the red-and-white clad shoulder leaning against his. Glancing around briefly, he shook his head and reached out a hand to Allura. "We're all okay. We're here."

"We are. This… this is amazing. I never knew that this existed… or could exist. I'm so glad to see you all…" A gloved hand rimmed in blue grasped Lance's red-rimmed hand and squeezed as Allura smiled fondly around the circle, her other hand touching Hunk's shoulder.

"Would it be wrong if I said 'We are all safe and warm?'" chimed in the Yellow Paladin brightly, grinning sheepishly as the others laughed raucously at the memory. Hunk gave a sigh of relief, brought his fingers up to squeeze Allura's hand, and rested his other on Pidge's back.

"Hunk, don't ever change." Pidge gave Keith a look of mock-annoyance for the ruffle and grinned widely up at first him and then Hunk. She soaked up the joy in the air that they all felt at being reunited and felt a sense of contentment.

They all did. Each of them leaned forward in their little circle until their heads could touch, eyes closed, smiles on their faces, drinking in the feeling of 'family', 'safe', and 'alive' that they'd held onto since finding themselves in lionspace. The lions looked at each other and purred a similar contentment, seeing their Paladins find a bit more healing in each other's presence. After a time, they all eased back and sat in a cluster together, none wanting to break what felt like a magic spell that surrounded them.

"We're missing someone."

It was Pidge that broke the companionable silence after a while, her voice soft and thoughtful. She glanced over at her lion, smiling as Green gave her a soft nod, then turned her head back and looked at Keith.

"Shiro should be here."

Keith blinked a few times at Pidge, then glanced around at the others to gauge their reaction. Lance's expression looked wistful, much as it had when they'd laid the clone of Shiro out and Keith had told them about the former Black Paladin being stuck in his lion's consciousness. Hunk looked a little sad at first… but a slow comprehension of something seemed to dawn on his features and he glanced at his lion. Allura had pulled one hand to her chest at Pidge's words and, while her expression almost matched Lance's, there was a light in her eyes that seemed hopeful. Keith noted that Pidge's expression was one of guarded hope and he wasn't quite sure how to take that.

"He should… but he doesn't have a lion anymore. Since Black and I are bonded I don't think he can get in that way." Keith raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck, a twinge in his heart for the man he called brother. The lack of Shiro in the group at this point felt like the worst sort of omission in light of all they'd gone through since coming home.

"Yeah, without a lion, how would he get here?" Lance piped up, gesturing to the space around the group and shifting a bit to sit cross-legged. "They pulled us in when we crashed, that was all them."

Hunk and Pidge met eyes and seemed to have a meeting of the minds in that one moment. Two pairs of brown eyes glittered like gold for a moment and they shared a fistbump. When the two spoke, the words that tumbled out came together as if they were speaking in tandem.

"The lions can't pull him in, but we might able to."

"We have Allura's alchemy and our own quintessence, right?"

"We could make the two work together and open a door."

"Green said it could work."

"Yellow thinks so, too."

Four sets of eyes focused on the Altean Princess, expressions guarded, curious, and hopeful all at once. Suddenly the center of attention, Allura's cheeks flushed and she held up one hand palm out while glancing over at Blue with questioning eyes. _'Could we…?'_

_'It is possible. We can not do it ourselves, our mindspaces are linked directly to you and essentially keyed individually. This hubspace is somewhat apart and more open.'_ Came the response from Blue, drawing a squeak out of Pidge as it was heard by all five in the circle.

_'Combine your quintessence and recall how it felt when you pulled him out of Black's mindspace. Reach out, find him, and welcome him in._' Came the rumbled addition from Red as it craned its head forward and nudged Lance in the back, startling his Paladin ("_Quiznak_, Red!") and jostling Keith slightly as a result.

Green and Yellow purred in agreement with their fellow lions, the approval and reassurance rippling around the circle in a comforting current.

_'Given what we all saw with the big ship your people built, I don't think it should be that hard.'_ Rumbled Black towards his Paladin matter-of-factly. Keith listened to his lion and blinked slowly, face thoughtful as he turned back towards the others.

"Black has a point. Something happened with the Atlas while we were out their getting our asses handed to us by that thing. One minute it was a ship, then it was… not." he mused, brushing his grown-out hair away from his face absently. "From the chatter we were hearing over the comms, I think Shiro had something to do with that."

"The crystal in his arm. The one from Allura's crown. It must have reacted with that diamond-thing we found after the Castle exploded and sealed the time rifts!" Hunk broke in, gesturing broadly at bringing up that particular memory. "The Atlas was modified from Altean tech, fitted with the remnant of an Altean ship, and presented with another crystal holding Altean energy. It was like an Altean trifecta!"

"We still don't know how a lot of Altean tech works, so anything's possible." Pidge added, leaning sideways to rest her head on Hunk's arm. "It could be a matter of tech and magic colliding and creating something completely new. Kinda like when we found out what our Lions could do when we bonded. I know I wasn't expecting to shoot a ray that sprouted vines."

Rubbing briefly at his back, Lance chuckled and shrugged, "Like I told Red, most of this magical stuff is beyond me, half the time I just accept that it's there and keep going. I'm willing to give anything a try, though, if we can get Shiro here. If anyone deserves this… he does."

They all shared a nod, faces gone pensive as each recalled what they knew of Shiro's history. From his abduction by the Galra, battling for his life in the Arena, the loss of his arm to Haggar and her Druids, fighting to maintain his bond with the Black Lion and ultimately physically dying in the process. The more recent memories of transferring his consciousness to a clone of himself and returning home to find that the man he loved had been killed during the Galra invasion were bittersweet counterpoints to each other; joy tempered by loss.

"I wonder…" Allura glanced down at her hands, recalling quickly how she'd been able to summon her alchemical force in her lion's mindspace. Closing her eyes halfway and focusing her fingers, she reached out hopefully again for the power she tapped into from Oriande. As her fingers began to glow a soft teal she heard an inhalation of breath from the others and the hairs on the back of her neck rose slightly.

_'Please,' _she sent her thoughts out into the space around them, remembering the voices she'd heard when she was welcomed in Oriande, _'show me what I need to do to help Shiro. We need him here… he needs us…'_

Her eyes closed as she raised her hands in front of her, cupping them together to make the power pool like water between them. There was a lightness inside her as she sent a thread of her own quintessence into the mix and felt it spiral up and out of her cupped hands into the starfield. She was dimly aware over time of the touch of hand underneath each elbow, Lance and Hunk lending support as her arms trembled slightly at being extended. Then four other threads of quintessence joined hers, travelling from each Paladin up through their touching forms, up into her hands and out.

_'Please, show us a way.' _she sent the request out into the spacefield, the others lending their agreement as their linked quintessence shared her words around the circle.

Something listened. Something beyond their circle. There was a warm, golden chuckle that trickled down from somewhere nearby in a voice that none of them recognized. It trickled down the trail of power to Allura's hands and spread around all of them like a hug. It had a tinge of gratitude to it.

Then something else woke and joined it. Metallic and fresh, a presence that stretched and yawned in its newness and reached out in curiosity to the gathered Paladins and the golden presence. The two aspects seemed to regard each other for what felt like an immeasurable amount of time, assessing each other with silent regard.

Then there was a spark and flash as the the two aspects suddenly merged and thrummed down the trail of power and practically blasting into the Paladins, their Lions, and the starfield around them. It rocked the five where they sat briefly and Allura's hands dropped to her lap abruptly, glow fading from her fingers. There were soft murmurings around the circle as they recovered themselves and Allura felt the supportive hands of before hold her shoulders reassuringly as her eyes rested on her lap. Their circle practically vibrated with energy, she felt it passing around and through them like an electric current, strong and unbroken.

"Wait… what's that?" Keith was looking past Allura's shoulder. She looked up and saw his eyes wide and staring at a point beyond her. A teal glow not coming from her hands was filtering in from behind her and lighting up the faces of the Paladins around her. Turning her head, her own eyes went wide at the sight that met them.

It was a lion. A white lion. Rivaling Black for size, maned, rimmed in shimmering teal and bearing marks like circuitry in a soft amber-orange color that glowed. The starfield around it was gradually fading from white to teal and back to the ambient display they'd come to be familiar with. It padded towards the Paladins and their lions without hurry, golden eyes half-slitted and relaxed.

"It's beautiful, whatever it is." Hunk said softly, his eyes glittering slightly at the corners as he watched it approach. Next to him, Pidge reached blindly for one of the larger boy's hands and twined her fingers into it. Keith put a hand on Lance's shoulder as the Blue Paladin just stared open-mouthed at the vision approaching them.

_'I suppose you can call us Atlas.'_ Came the amused rumble, warm like sunshine and thick like honey as it washed over them. A white tail tipped in that same amber-orange swayed softly behind the lion as it reached the outer circle of Lions and paused. When it purred, it almost seemed like there were two voices at first before they resolved into one cohesive thrum full of assurance and power. _'I'm your link to the ship, just like the lions around you here are links to your physical Lions. I'm also something of a second chance for someone.'_

_'I'm also here for Takashi.'_

"Takashi…" Keith took a deep breath around the word and his hand shook slightly on Lance's shoulder, causing the Cuban boy to look back at him in concern. There's was a note to Atlas' voice that was familiar to him now and a soft smile crept across his face. "You waited for him after all, Adam."

The other Paladins gave each other slightly confused looks at that, going back and forth between this new lion and Keith with expressions eventually begging for an answer. Keith chuckled and shook his head slowly. "Leave it to Shiro to get a lion that's his ship… and his partner."

_'Don't ask me how, I'm not really sure I understand it myself. Maybe it was because when Sam came back, told us all that you guys were still alive… I couldn't really hang onto the words I spoke to him last.'_ Atlas padded into the circle, coming to rest just behind Allura's right shoulder, close enough to touch though no one reached out to him. The regret filtered through the lion's rumbles and they all looked up into his golden eyes with varying degrees of sadness._ 'I had no way of knowing how long it was going to be before you all came home… but yes, I waited.'_

_'This one's call reached me… and it woke the Atlas itself.'_ the white-furred head, rimmed in teal, leaned down to nose Allura's equally white hair as if in thanks. _'We… came to an understanding and here we are.'_

Allura flushed pink, eyes shifting to a look of wonder as she reached up to touch Atlas' cheek with one hand. She traced the circuit-like orange lines on his muzzle with a mix of curiosity and a faint sadness.

"I wish my father could see this… his work taken to a height I don't think could ever have imagined. He would have been thrilled, I think." she said softly, touching her forehead to Atlas' muzzle before releasing it. She felt Lance's hand on her arm, comforting, and turned her head to give the boy a fond smile that brought a pink to his cheeks that matched hers.

"But how do we link you to Shiro? I mean… you're here, you're Atlas and all, but I bet you woke up while he wasn't connected or something." Pidge leaned forward, studying the lion very intently and gesturing to the others. "Do we have to do more of what we just did?"

"It sounds like it wouldn't be that hard, you know? What we just did didn't feel all that difficult… did it?" Hunk added in, broad hands mimicking Allura's cupped hands and miming an up-and-out motion. "Except we have to pull in as much as we push out, I think."

"Can't we just sing a mental 'Kum-ba-yah' and tell Shiro to get his ass over here?" everyone looked at Lance at his abrupt comment, multiple eyes giving the sharpshooter looks ranging from mild, but fond, annoyance to abject surprise. He threw both hands up and looked at the others with mild exasperation. "What? Does anyone have a better idea? Hit me with it."

There was silence for a moment. They all looked at each other, weighing the question against their own thoughts and concepts. Atlas watched them evenly, towering over their circle as he raised his head back up and looked up at the starfield. He seemed to look beyond it for a time, a perfect statue of a lion if not for a barely-moving tail.

_'He's sleeping right now. Sam practically ordered him to rest after you were all found and were being treated. He was too worried about all of you to let himself stop. That's our Takashi all right… '_ Atlas rumbled fondly, still gazing up and beyond. _'When each of you were found, he was there with Coran to get you out. He's the reason Atlas woke, but he wasn't at a hundred percent when it happened and it took more out of him than he wanted to admit.'_

The current that seemed to flow through the five of them pulsed with their heartbeats for a moment, each one responding with love and gratitude at the thought that he'd been there for them. It pulsed equally with concern that he'd pushed himself so much for them and Atlas could see the glow of it linking them together. A white-gold rope that passed from Paladin to Paladin, strengthening by the second.

_'Lance may be the closest to understanding what would work here. You're already linked, you just need to focus that and call him. I'm sure he'll answer.'_

"Let's do this, guys. He needs us. We need him." Keith said firmly, catching the eyes of his team one by one and nodding as he found the same resolve in their gaze. "I think we're going to need a bit more room, though. You're not a small lion, Atlas, and you should be here in the middle just in case."

There was a murmur all around of agreement and each Paladin scooted back from where they sat, making a much larger space in the center of their circle as they settled cross-legged. As they did, their individual lions rose from their recline and came forward to sit between them, close enough that each of the Paladins could put a hand on their lion and the one next to them.

Keith rested his hands loosely on Black and Red's flanks, Lance on Red and Blue, Allura on Blue and Yellow, Hunk on Yellow and Green, and Pidge completed the circle on both Green and Black. The breadth of space in their circle was more than enough for Atlas to step into, the lion pacing three times around the circle, touching his muzzle to each of them before reclining in the center.

_'I'm ready when you are, kids.'_

Allura gazed at the lion for a few breaths before closing her eyes, inhaling softly and gathering power into her hands. The others watched as the teal glow of her alchemy shimmered around her hands and spread up her arms to meet at her shoulders before rippling back out into each lion beside her. From there the glow spread quickly, threading across the backs of Blue and Yellow to Lance and Hunk's hands, then on through them around the circle until the tendrils of it met across Black's shoulders with a soft spark. Slowly it built in intensity until the newly completed circuit merged with the one they'd held since Atlas woke. Each Paladin's individual colored glow was replaced by one that oscillated white, teal, and gold as their eyes fell closed. The lions purred in tandem, adding a thrumming vibration that kept them all grounded where they sat.

The power built between them, a pulse racing around the circle and building like an engine until it felt ready to burst forth.

_'Call him.'_ Atlas rumbled softly. _'Now'._

His name formed in their heads and whispered past their lips and, as they did, the power rose up from their circle into the starfield above them in a column of light. It stabbed upwards into the shimmering rainbow of stars and brightened the expanse around them.

Their mingled calls reached out with the power, seeking one singular soul beyond their reach.

They hoped he would listen.


	14. Chapter 14: Reunion: Part 2

Soft, enveloping darkness. Quiet and all-encompassing.

It was that place that exists between dreams and deeper, healing sleep. Where pain ceased to exist and consciousness could float like a cloud across the sky.

There wasn't a sense of time to stretch out the drifting of the mind, just that gentle wandering in what might be.

_'Shiro!'_

Eyes opened in the dark, the name setting off a spark in the darkness; a flare of colored light almost like fireworks that burst and then faded. Was it imagination? Was it a trick of the mind in this blankness?

_'Shiro!'_

Another spark, brighter this time and lingering longer, caught the eye and lit up the darkness in golden white tinged with teal. The colors couldn't really be Shiro's imagination. It was calling his name and he turned towards it in the dark field, looking up.

_'Takashi!'_

Breath hitched in his throat as the spark exploded across the darkness directly over his head, stronger even than the last and carrying emotion with it. A soft, earnest feeling of love and need filtered down to his head as motes of light floated down around him. Shiro raised his left hand to catch one of them and felt the power tingle in the flesh of his palm.

_'Shiro!'_

It wasn't purely a spark anymore, it was mingled voices, familiar voices, that called to him. The bright white-gold light appeared at one end of his darkness, beckoning like an opening door. Wordless curiosity drew him towards it, becoming aware of his feet moving forward. The spark he'd caught in his hand sank into his palm and rimmed his figure in teal-edged white. It fascinated him even as he moved towards the comforting light.

_'Brother!'_

One voice powered over the others briefly with the word, struck a chord that ran deep. His step picked up as the bright doorway drew closer and closer. It seemed to pull him to it, lightening the darkness around him as came to stand before it.

He had a brief thought that maybe this wasn't a dream… that maybe something else had taken place that was more final. There had been so much that happened.

_'We're here! Come! Please!'_

The white light before him pulsed and thrummed with the fervent call, the voices resolving in his head with a jolt like snapping fingers. His team. His family. They were on the other side and they were calling him. The strength with which their call reached him brought the beginnings of tears to his eyes as he reached out for the doorway. In the distance he heard a roar… not one he was familiar with from the existing lions.

"How?" he murmured, hand brushing the glow in front of him and feeling its soft, cloud-like form cool against his fingertips. It tugged on his hand gently at first, then more insistently as he remained in place, and there was a burst of joy behind it as the pull seemed to have a serious amount of weight behind it.

"I'm coming, I'm coming… " Shiro chuckled under his breath as he stepped into the light, "I hear you."

The light enveloped him like a blanket and he couldn't tell at first if he was falling or flying, the coolness gradually warming as he was pulled along. The white-gold-teal was all around him but it wasn't too bright, more like looking through fog.

His feet found purchase first, but he found himself sinking to one knee with the feeling that he'd landed. As he did, a roar split the air nearby, close enough that it wiped out all other sounds for the moment. The white light around him began to fade and he found himself staring at fur.

White fur. Traced through with a soft orange circuitry and rimmed in faint teal. Covering a large, maned lion that reclined in front of him, regarding Shiro with deep golden eyes. His own slate-grey eyes widened at the sight, breath catching in his throat and words failing.

_'There you are, Takashi. We found you again.'_ the lion rumbled at him, the voice familiar and yet not. He couldn't immediately place it, but… wait…

"We?"

Blinking the last of the white from his eyes, Shiro looked away from the lion slowly, his eyes going up first given that its head had been above his. He took in the starfield above, the oscillating bands of familiar colors and nebulae. It reminded him of when he was stuck in the Black Lion and his face softened in a familiar sort of sadness.

There was a hitch of breath in the background that wasn't his. It startled him into a wider awareness and tore his gaze away from the celestial display, sent him searching for the source. He was only vaguely aware as his head turned that he was glowing, white and teal and orange all oscillating soothingly in an edge along his armored shoulder.

The first pair of eyes to meet his were violet, framed by pale skin in a face with a familiar pink scar on the right cheek, long black hair brushing the neck of his armor. Keith. The Black Paladin's mouth hung slightly open, sharing a look of disbelief with his predecessor, his brother, his friend.

Shiro's gaze slid next to blue eyes in tan skin topped by short, darker brown hair. Lance's eyes were already glimmering at the corners and a smile spreading across his face.

Allura was next, white curls framing her brown-skinned face; turquoise and purple eyes with glowing pink markings on her cheeks gazing back at him fondly with a note of triumphant accomplishment sparking in them.

Hunk had already started crying, tears trickling down his warm, tan cheeks from equally warm brown eyes. There was nothing but joy in his expression.

The grin plastered on Pidge's face was infectious and lit up her honey-brown eyes like nothing else. He could swear she was practically fidgeting in place with excitement.

Then there were the lions in the circle, filling the space between the Paladins and rumbling in welcome.

"What? What's going on? How?" the questions spilled out of Shiro's mouth haltingly, the fingers of his right hand raising to comb through his white hair in confusion. "Where are we? What are you guys doing here?"

_'You're home.'_ came the rumbling answer from next to him, amused and fond, before the white lion leaned down and headbutted his left shoulder just hard enough to knock him over. Caught completely off-guard, Shiro gave an indignant squawk and toppled over onto his right side, just catching himself with his right arm.

There were multiple sets of laughter and then they were all there, each of the Paladins breaking their circle and practically lunging into the center to greet him. There was a pile of limbs and color and joyful voices and tears as they all piled on the former Black Paladin. The individual glow of each seemed to merge and blend at the edges where they touched, making a veritable rainbow of bleeding colors.

"This… what is this?" Shiro gasped out into the knot of his team, his family, more than a bit bewildered by everything. He registered that the arms around his waist were Pidge, her head tucking up under his left arm. Keith had his own left arm around Shiro's shoulders from behind, on one knee with his chest coming up behind the white-haired head. Lance was at his right arm, one hand on his shoulder and the other resting on the floating lower half. Allura was on her knees right in front of him, leaning onto his right leg, and Hunk leaned on his left with a hand on his left shoulder.

"It's okay, Shiro. You're safe here, we all are." Keith murmured, leaning down to brush his lips against his brother's hair, his free hand gesturing around the starfield.. "Nothing's wrong. We just felt you needed this as much as we did."

"Yeah, you've been through as much as us, more really. Didn't seem right to leave you on the outside while we were in here." Lance knelt more comfortably, one knee tucked up to his chest, and smiled. "We know we're hurt. We know you're hurt. We all need a break."

"Takashi, we know you wouldn't rest until you found us all." Allura said his name and he blinked rapidly at it coming out of her mouth. Her turquoise and purple eyes were soft and kind and her hand squeezed his knee gently. "You deserve that rest, dear friend."

"Yeah, buddy, it's been a long road to get here and we're all tired. We don't have to go anywhere for as long as we need to." Hunk's confidence was somehow reassuring given the Yellow Paladin's self-admitted fears. "The lions said there's no time here."

"We missed you. It was too quiet without you here being Space Dad." Pidge nearly whispered, nuzzling her cheek into his side before releasing him and outright crawling into his lap sideways. Once there, she reached out to touch his cheek around his otherwise stunned expression. "Nothing hurts here. No nightmares. No pain."

_'Don't leave me out of this, I only just got here and I've been waiting a long time for this.'_ Came the rumbling behind him, the sound of it shifting a bit as the lion he'd appeared next to rose and circled around to come into his field of vision. The massive, white-maned lion settled down just behind Allura and gazed at him evenly. He had a half-breath to wonder why the voice sounded familiar, why there was a sudden ache in his chest that went with it.

_'I'm sorry, Takashi. I'm sorry that I wasn't here when you came home.'_

Keith's arm tightened around Shiro's shoulders as he felt the older man go still beneath him. The others gave half-smiles, looking from lion to erstwhile Paladin quietly, not interfering. Allura slid to the side until she was leaning against Lance, the Red Paladin wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

The lion padded into the open space and laid down, paws just barely touching his crossed legs, and looked evenly at him. Waiting.

Shiro thought his heart was going to crack in two. The way his name was said, the warm flavor to the voice, conjured the same image of brown skin, golden brown eyes behind glasses, and warm light brown hair that had been there when he fell asleep. It held a deeper, subtly more metallic and faintly echoing quality, but he knew the tones just the same.

"A-Adam? How?" the name whispered past his lips with a breath he barely realized he'd been holding. His hands, both real and prosthetic, rose to the lion's head with a slight tremble. Once they met with the orange-streaked cheeks, fingers delved into the soft fur and the lion let out a deep rumble of contentment.

_'Yes… but not just me. We are Atlas. I'm not alone here, but now… neither are you.'_ The lion pressed his head forward into Shiro's hands, eyes half-slitted, rumbling deeply at him._ 'While you may not be a Paladin of Voltron anymore, you are Captain of the Atlas and just as important. As for how? These kids loved you enough to wake something new just for you.'_

_'We are all here right now for you.'_

Pidge reached up from Shiro's lap and buried her fingers in Atlas's chin-fur, scritching gently and smiling. There was a chuckling rumble from the lion that eased the ache in Shiro's heart and, as he brought in a shaking breath, he realized his cheeks were wet. There was a little hard spot in his chest that was starting to uncurl as he sat there, fingers buried in the Lion's (_his_ Lion's) fur, each breath getting a little easier. Eventually his posture relaxed so that he leaned against Keith behind him, smile easing onto his face around the tears.

"You all are just… impossibly amazing. I don't deserve any of you." His voice was calm, his words free of deflection or any attempt to brush off their presence. This was a gift and he wasn't going to nay-say the efforts his family had put out to get to this point.

"Thank you." Shiro said, putting all of the love he had for this ragtag, misfit team into his voice. He looked at each of them in turn, including craning his head back to smile fondly up at his brother. "I'm so glad to see you all safe here. I was so worried out there."

"Atlas told us you were there for each of us. That you and Coran got us out of the Lions after we crashed." Lance leaned in from his right with a more sober look, leaning his head to one side. "That Sam kinda told you to get your ass in a bed before you fell over. You'd not really stopped after you and Sendak went nine rounds on the top of his ship."

Hunk's hand tightened on his left shoulder. "Thank you for being there for my parents, man. Yellow told me that they were there when you showed up. That means so much."

The looks of concern for him flashed around the little knot of young Paladins, each giving him their own variation of the 'you did more than you had to' look that they'd all given each other and him at one point or another. Shiro found himself chuckling at being on the receiving end of the mother hen routine he often gave them.

"I couldn't do any less for my team. My family. With all we've been through together, to do less wouldn't have been right." His head rested against Keith's chestplate for a bit, the younger man brushing his white forelock away from his eyes with gentle fingers. "I was concerned because none of you had woken up yet. The fall did a number on each of you… but none of you woke up at any point when we found you. Now I know why."

_'They'll wake up soon enough, Takashi. They had to work through some of their pain here first.'_ Atlas rumbled, resting his head against his paws lightly, eyes flicking to each of the Paladins as they nodded agreement. Then his eyes came to rest on his Shiro again and the glowing eyes dimmed slightly, the rumble settling into a soothing purr as it nosed his shin. _'As do you. Oh, Takashi… I'm so sorry.'_

Shiro had half a moment to wonder what Atlas was apologizing for before the feather-soft brush of the lion's consciousness against his gave him all the reasons he needed. There wasn't much point to walling off the new bond and so he let the amalgamation of his former partner and the new Garrison ship into the choppy, scarred landscape of his memories. He let his eyes close for the moment, feeling himself propped up and surrounded by his team, all the safety he needed just a breath away.

"It's… been one hell of a ride." he murmured, feeling the warm gentleness in his mind go over the year he spent in captivity under the Galra, his escape back to Earth only to be thrust back into the war with four more lives to be responsible for, the battles they fought, his death and eventual rebirth, and returning home once more to try and save humanity. All of it underlaid with varying levels of guilt and anger that had been left unresolved in all that time. Of course, one pearl of guilt stood out in the search, and Shiro's breath caught in his throat, tears starting at the corner of his eyes before he could even react to stop them.

Adam's face, his expression as he warned Shiro that he wouldn't be there if the stubborn pilot went on the Kerberos mission. Followed immediately by the image of his fingers touching Adam's plaque on the memorial wall in the Garrison. The guilt was palpable, enough that he felt one arm tighten about his chest, one small one against his cheek, others at his shoulder, hand, or knee. One weight lifted from his lap to be replaced by a different weight that purred deeply.

_'Takashi… look at me.'_ The rumbling voice implored him so strongly that he opened watery grey eyes to look down into the head of his lion resting in his lap. Atlas gazed up at him with his own unflinching gold, blinked slowly, and the bond between them rippled with an equally golden flood of acceptance._ 'I forgive you. Love and worry make a person say many things that they regret later. I wish I could have seen you and your team return with my own eyes, but I'm here now.'_

_'I forgive you. The others obviously forgive you.'_ He heard the soft murmurs of assent ripple through the others gathered around him, variations of the phrase being said to him with love behind them. It was like a balm against all the doubt and pain that had taken root in his soul over time. The tears streamed down his face and his eyes slipped closed again, his flesh hand coming up to cover his eyes as the force of it all choked a sob out from behind his lips.

_'Now forgive yourself, even if you can only do a little bit right now. Forgive yourself.'_ Something crumbled inside him, a wall came down that was one of the earliest he'd built, the one that repeatedly cursed him for failing those he felt responsible for. It wasn't completely gone, but he found he had no interest in rebuilding it, and it let light into a part of him that had been dark for far too long. Atlas flowed through the bond into that space and made it glow, seemed to curl into the space and claim it, and he felt lighter.

It was quite a sight that anyone outside of Voltron would have been unable to comprehend. White-haired, black-and-white armored Shiro, cross-legged on the ground, his team, his family clustered as close to him as they could be with tears in their eyes, his glowing lion's head firmly in his lap… and the rest of the lions having crept in to add their touches to the pile. Again, the colors that rimmed each individual form seemed to bleed together, mixing, melding, and brightening to an almost blinding white. It made them their own bright star in the vast starfield around them… and how brightly it burned.


	15. Chapter 15: Return

"I'm pretty sure they're going to rope me into making some sort of speech. Though, to be fair, I may have put that thought in Veronica's head."

"Hah! If you let her on to it then it's a done deal. My sister doesn't do anything by halves."

"You do have the voice and presence for it, Shiro. I still remember your speech in front of my Garrison class before you put all of us in that simulator… and before I stole your car."

"Whoa, Keith, you stole Shiro's car? That's almost up there with Pidge breaking into the Garrison computers."

"Hey, we can't all be crossdressing tech-wizards now, can we?"

There was laughter all around, the easy, companionable sound that touched on the time they'd all spent together. The things they'd done and the things they'd seen had woven the six of them together beyond what some might consider reasonable. It was occasionally hard, here in this hubspace, to figure out where one ended and the other began until a memory interceded.

Once again, it seemed like time had stretched and yet was only a blink of an eye, and they were all sitting in a rough circle. Each of them laid back on the lions, reclining with an ease that it felt they hadn't had in years. The healing had been important for all of them, and the lightness around the circle was palpable. Even the thought of what might come next after they all woke wasn't quite enough to chase the simple joy of it from their minds.

Yet… eventually the concept of waking up had intruded somewhat on their calm. They couldn't stay here forever, as peaceful as it was. There was still the question of what the alien mech-beast was that they'd fought, that had hurt them all so badly that the lions had needed to squirrel their minds away so securely. It was more of an unspoken spectre in the air between them even as they revelled in each other's presence.

The first sign had been after the light faded from the six of them. Where once each form had been armored in their standard Paladin gear, now they were all clad in what looked like hospital garb. The loose tunics and pants were a bit jarring at first after having been so comfortable in armor, but the rumbles of their lions reassured them that it was just a harbinger of their bodies becoming ready to accept them back.

Shiro looked around the circle at the misfit band of teens (he kept forgetting that Keith technically was an adult now) and rubbed the fingers of his prosthetic arm between his lion's ears. Atlas rumbled, head on his paws, and flicked his tail against the Paladin's lap. He was still getting used to the concept of having a bonded partner like this again, moreso that said partner was his in more ways than one. He'd already thanked the others for whatever spark they lit that brought his love and the ship together in such a unique way. He was so lucky to have them all… and they all knew they were lucky to have him.

As he listened to the others go back and forth over Keith's early Garrison days, he felt a soft tug at the back of his mind. The tug was gentle at first, but became more insistent as his hand stilled on Atlas' head. The lion lifted it's head and gazed at him with what seemed like a small smile.

_'It's time, isn't it, Takashi?' _he rumbled, the question breaking into the nearby conversation and bringing attention to the newly bonded pair. _'Time to wake up and do what needs doing.'_

"I'm waking up, aren't I?" Shiro murmured to the lion, letting out a sigh at the purring assent and looking to the others. The tugging had spread from the back of his head, tingling down his spine and settling in his stomach like a gently tied rope. "Looks like I have to go back. You all still have healing to do, but it's time I started handling things. You know I'll look in on each of you. I can't say if I'll be there when you all wake, but I'll try."

"We'll be there soon, Shiro. Don't worry. We'll all be fine." Keith smiled, leaning on the Black Lion next to him, and reached over to squeeze his left shoulder. Even with the scar on his cheek, the leader of Voltron had a peace in his eyes that Shiro had never seen, one that probably only his mother had seen when he was a baby. "Go. Be great."

"If that isn't irony, I don't know what is." Pidge giggled from across the circle, stretched out along Green's back with her arms folded atop the very understanding lion's head.

Hunk stretched against Yellow and grinned, "Write a good speech, bro. I want to hear it when I wake up."

Lance and Allura leaned against each other and Red on the other side of Shiro, the sharpshooter giving him a thumbs up and the Princess smiling warmly.

"We believe in you, Shiro." she said softly, brushing a strand of her hair away from her face and patting Blue.

Shiro smiled in quiet relief before glancing at Atlas and giving him one more pat on the flank. "Well… let's do this then, partner. How do I-"

As soon as the question had started to leave his lips, it was answered. The form of Takashi Shirogane glowed briefly white and then dissipated into soft white motes. Atlas remained, ears perked and alert for a few seconds before he rumbled reassuringly to the circle of briefly alarmed Paladins.

_'He's awake. Looks like Sam came by to check on him, Matt's behind him. He'll be fine.'_

There was a release of breath all around and a chuckle from Pidge at hearing her father and brother were there. None of them had been exactly certain as to what 'waking up' would entail… but it didn't seem so bad so that worry was quickly eased.

"Now it's just a waiting game, right? To see when our bodies are ready to take us back?" Hunk asked, folding his arms behind his head. "I know time doesn't really exist here so there isn't, you know, a countdown clock or anything to give us an idea."

_'Well, from what I felt along our bond, Takashi felt it like a tugging. Kinda like you have a rope around you and it's pulling. I'd gather that's the connection between your mind and your body wanting to reassert itself.'_Atlas rumbled thoughtfully at the concept, glancing over at Black and Green as they rumbled in agreement.

_'When your bodies are ready to accept you, they will pull you back in. You will have a bit of warning, but no much as you saw.'_ Rumbled Green, earning a measured look from Pidge and an ear-rub.

"But since Atlas is here, you guys will stay visible until we're all gone, right? The last one out won't be alone will they?" Lance asked, gesturing around at the lions and looking a little nervous. Being alone seemed the last thing any of them really wanted to be at this point if the balance of expressions amongst the group was any measurement.

_'We can. We can stay here in the hubspace until you all wake and then return to our own space.' _Black rumbled, reassurance flowing along the bond to Keith as it did, the young man's expression relaxing.

"Good… because otherwise I was going to hold back until everyone else woke up." replied the Black Paladin, leaning back into the inky softness of his lion's side. "I'm glad I won't be alone, then."

There was a brief ripple of anxiety around the circle as the others looked at him with mixed reactions. Hunk seemed sad but resigned, Pidge looked a little tearful, Lance looked like he wanted to say something, and Allura had seemed to slip into 'diplomat' mode.

"Guys, it's okay! It might not even happen that way. We don't really know how badly any of us were hurt and who might be the first to wake up." Keith held up both hands placatingly, smiling over them in an attempt to calm the others. "Heck, I could be first and Pidge might be last. We don't know. Relax."

It took a second or two for the others to do that, but in the end they turned to quietly talking out their residual fears about leaving lionspace and going back to their healing bodies. There was a palpable anxiety about going back into an uncertain future that began to weigh on them all after a time. They found themselves clustering closer together as the time slowly began to feel like it was catching up to them. Eventually they all sat, cross-legged and knees touching, hands held and simply breathing together. Occasionally there was a soft chuckle from Atlas as he relayed things happening from Shiro's perspective.

Oh, there was going to be a speech all right. Plus the notation that there were alien ships arriving, most of them Rebel forces, gave them all a boost. The lions had all been recovered and had been cleaned up, repaired where needed, and things were being set up for a mass address to the gathered human and alien populations.

Hunk was the first of them to feel the tugging sensation of waking. They knew from Atlas' words that it had been at least a couple of weeks since Shiro had left them. It was the first notation they had of the passing of time even though it felt like only a heartbeat to the rest of them. The Yellow Paladin squeezed the hands of Allura and Pidge, beamed his sunshine smile on them with a single tear, and dissolved into yellow-white motes of light. Yellow relayed Hunk's waking, the smiling faces of his mother and father, the bandage around his head as he opened his eyes to the light of his room. Shiro checked in on him with relief, a pad of paper and a pen clutched in one hand as he leaned in the door and gave Hunk a knowing look.

They closed up the circle and continued to wait.

Pidge was next, the Green Paladin giving a giggle as the pulling sensation reached her. She prompted a quick fistbump from the three remaining Paladins before she dissolved into green-white light. Green relayed her waking, the relief on Colleen and Sam's faces, the warm light in the windows behind Matt as he leaned against them. The hugs and gentle touches as the Holt family welcomed its daughter back to consciousness. Even in the lionspace it was hard to stop a tear or two of joy for the reunited family. Shiro stopped at the door long enough to give a small smile, pad of paper traded for notecards. It was only a day or two more.

Keith, Lance, and Allura made themselves a triangle, joined hands, resumed waiting.

Lance was next, and even before he dissolved into red-tinged white, he was laughing and calling out the names of his family. Red rumbled in delight at relaying the Red Paladin waking to a room full of relatives, his young niece and nephew tucked up on either side of him in his bed as they waited for him to wake. They were careful of the bandages on his arms until the doctors came in to remove them. The image of him sitting with one cradled in his lap while the other tried on his helmet brought smiles to Keith and Allura's faces.

Then it was just the two of them, and they sat across from each other, knees touching and hands resting together.

Keith's words from earlier echoed in his head, his earlier resolution to be the last of them out poking at the back of his mind for a moment. He brushed it aside and smiled at Allura, squeezing her hands gently to belie the nerves they both had. Which one would it be? Leader of Voltron? Princess of Altea? Both knew they had their own responsibilities calling them.

Allura's eyes brightened slightly and he knew it was her turn. A tear slipped out of one of her turquoise eyes and he reached up a hand to brush it away, bringing them together until their foreheads touched.

"I'll be there soon, don't worry." he whispered before she vanished in blue-white light before him.

Then he was alone. No, not truly alone, as the rumbling of six lions reassured him that they hadn't abandoned him. Blue relayed Allura waking to Coran, Romelle, and four very worried-looking mice. The vase of white lilies by her bed… and the card with a stick-figure drawing that vaguely resembled Lance on it with a heart by his head. It made Keith chuckle and rub at his head at the implications. Shiro ghosted by outside the door briefly but didn't stay, the white-haired man clad in dress uniform and clutching printed cards in his prosthetic hand ever-so-gently.

The lions took turns relaying Shiro's speech to him, and he laid back in a circle of them listening to his brother's words as he waited for his turn to wake up.

_'Today… is a solemn day.'_

Flags waving in the breeze.

_'Today, we look back at the lives that have been lost and the sacrifices that have been made here on Earth and across the universe.'_

Flags waving before five lions, arranged before a stage.

_'There isn't one of us here today who hasn't experienced the tragedy of losing someone close.'_

Portraits, bunted in mourning, adorned with flowers. Families, leaders, friends.

_'It truly feels like a light has gone out in our lives and the sun itself couldn't reignite it.'_

A wall of names. A familiar golden-haired and brown-skinned face with glasses.

_'But that light, that fire, has not gone out completely.'_

The faces of those who had stood behind them on earth, the young MFE pilots.

_'It is fueled within each of us by the memories and the love of those we've lost._

_And now we must move forward in their names._

_And shine that light onto a new path for future generations._

_Today is a solemn day, but it is also a day of hope.'_

Shiro's face, grey eyes alive and bright as he addressed the gathered multitude.

_'Earth is now stronger than ever, and it stands as a beacon of light to help guide those fighting against tyranny and oppression.'_

The crowd of humans and aliens, standing together with eyes raised to the dais.

_From here, we will spread peace, and together we will hold strong…_

_as the defenders of the universe.'_

Even as the last words were rumbled to him by Black, he felt his world dissolve in violet-tinged white. The sensation of gentle falling accompanied it until there was a soft feeling of landing. As he came aware, there was pain, but the sight that greeted his opening eyes was worth it.

Krolia sat at his bedside, her violet eyes gazing into his with a warmth and love that softened the pain in h is head. Behind her, leaning up against the window, Kolivan looked down at him with something he'd never seen on the face of the leader of the Blade of Marmora.

A smile.

Things were going to be okay after all.

_~Fin~_


End file.
